Posted on 02/11/2021 12:34:59 PM PST by Brian Griffin
The scheme would most importantly take local housing costs and employer & employee status into account.
The basic housing cost factor would be the square root of the pre-Covid 2019 HUD fair market rent of a one-bedroom apartment in the zip code area of the employee's most common work site divided by 10, rounded.
Typical HUD fair market rents might be around $1,200/month in much of America, $2,000/month in some big cities and $3,000/month in prime SF Bay areas.
The basic housing cost factors for those amounts would be $10.95, $14.14 and $17.32, respectively.
To compute the base minimum wage, the basic housing cost factors would be adjusted for CPI inflation since January 2019 and then rounded up to the next dollar.
People would have to work somewhat more hours to cover their big city rent. The big city rents are higher for many reasons, such as better lifestyle attractions, commute time value and long-term income growth opportunities.
Some smart aleck might say four weeks of 40-hour $18/hour work won't cover $3,000/month SF rent. I would first say share a place or take the BART to & from Richmond, CA. I would then say high SF & NYC rents have fallen.
With 160 work hours a month, people might gross $1,760 in a small town and $2,400 in a big city, or about $560 and $400 a month above typical rents, at a minimum. That may not seem much, but most people start their first job while living with family and then develop skills and experience that command a premium above the minimum wage.
In 2024, after say 10% inflation, the base minimum wages would be $13/hour, $16/hour and $20/hour, respectively.
The employer status factors might be:
A. $1/hour off for unincorporated/Chapter S unaffiliated[i.e. not a franchise] businesses and persons,
B. $1/hour off if such businesses/persons operate from just one location(excluding equipment/supply storage),
C. $1/hour off if such businesses/persons had no other direct employees except the substantive owner(s) during the same employer standardized hired employee pay period.
The employee status factors might be:
A. $1/hour off if the employee claimed to be unemployed on his/her written job application,
B. $1/hour off if the employee claimed to be under age 18 on his/her written job application,
C. $1/hour off if the employee claimed to have a criminal/drug court record on his/her written job application.
These factors allow for a quite appropriate amount of targeted wage flexibility in the labor market.
The maximum reduction for any employee would be $3/hour.
A small business in a modest housing cost locale might be able to get help for $10/hour($13/hour less three $1/hour discounts).
I'm sure many of you would say this is too complicated. However, one basic rule coupled with an inflation adjustment and six employer optional exceptions is actually quite a simple system. It has been my lifelong experience that employers will readily go through a great amount of effort to pay most employees as little as possible.
In practice the federal Department of Labor would compute the base minimum wages annually by zip code and small employers would check the DoL website annually for their most expensive zip code place of business (or listen to their fellow employers kvetch). Status factor application would be an employer option.
There are many of you that object to a federal minimum wage. However, federal minimum wages are necessary when the federal government subsidizes rents to below $300/month for many millions of people. Refugees are entitled to full welfare benefits by treaty.
If there was no federal minimum wage, many employers would simply collect job applications until they find a federally subsidized person (or some older mortgage-free homeowner) who could afford to work for say $6/hour. The federal welfare system, which is not going away in my lifetime, badly corrupts the job market.
Many of you might say having a federal minimum wage costs jobs. It does, but not as much as supposed since the services provided by low wage workers, such as fast food preparation and shelf stocking, are often highly desirable and avoid the need for impossibly high capital investment. Moreover, if a college student misses out on a $6/hour job, he can borrow tuition money and pay the borrowed money back when he gets a $50,000/year job after graduation. The student who misses out on a job will have more time to study and may even have his educational debt wiped clean by vote-buying politicians.
It should be understood that a federal minimum wage also increases the ready availability of quality labor by making jobs more financially attractive to workers and by greatly reducing the number of job applications a person has to fill out to get a job since employer fishing for $6/hour labor is outlawed.
I suspect that the federal government should set federal minimum wages with the goal of minimizing federal welfare costs.
Bear in mind, President Joe Biden would gladly sign a 'historic' nationwide federal $15/hour minimum wage bill into law. The average federal employee salary in Washington, DC was about $108,000/year a few years ago. To Nancy, Chuck and Joe, $15/hour is chump change.
I would suggest that a revised federal minimum wage law not go into effect until January 1, 2022 because the small businesses that remain need to recover from Covid restrictions and massive amounts of Covid financial "relief" are still being handed out to individuals.
Minimum wage: if you can’t produce enough value (as defined by strangers), you’re not allowed to earn at all.
Why do you hate poor people?
Minimum wage is $0.00. Pay people what they are worth to your business. If they produce value worth $15.00 per hour OK. Otherwise no.
Yep, there will always be a minimum wage of zero. Mandating a higher one just means the least valuable workers either work under the table and don’t pay taxes, or remain unemployed and sponge off the rest of us.
The higher you drive minimum wage costs, the faster you drive minimum wage jobs into the waiting hands of automation.
The shift of those low-skill jobs to automation is coming no matter what, but once hiring low-skill workers becomes less cost-effective than replacing them with machines, they will be replaced with machines. Ergo, they’ll go from a low-paying job to no job.
My suggestion for the minimum wage is much simpler. It is zero.
The government has no role whatsoever in determining what an individual works out with an employee for wages. It is not a role the government is authorized to play via the Constitution. The government setting a wage is inappropriate interference the in marketplace. The government is preventing some kids and unskilled labor from entering the workforce because they are simply not worth the minimum wage in some situations. The minimum wage is a tool used by unions to force employers to increase wages to their people without being required to negotiate with employers. That is what the minimum wage is all about.
What are you doing at FR?
The government has made it illegal for you to work for less than $15/hr. This is a complete violation of your rights.
The only acceptable scheme would include anyone being allowed to opt-out and take trade their labor for any amount that is agreed to voluntarily.
Well I’m calling the white house to suggest unemployment benefits must also match the $15/he criteria. Who’s with me?
WHERE’S OUR DOUGH JOE n HO?
The government does not have the right to set a maximum or minimum hourly rate of pay.
A federal minimum wage already exists. It is the law of the land.
A federal minimum wage has existed since 1938 I believe.
“The government has made it illegal for you to work for less than $15/hr. This is a complete violation of your rights.”
My proposal would allow for $10/hour wages under certain circumstances.
It has exceptions.
Are more exceptions needed? If so list and define.
What if the value of your labor is worth $9.50?
How is the employer compensated for that extra $0.50?
Is there some kind of exception for that?
The most basic of facts, which most democrats ignore, and many republicans, is that.......
Businesses are not in business to pay wages....
Businesses are in business to produce goods and services.
Thus, a worker gets hired to produce for the business, and not just to get a wage, minimum or maximum or in-between.
Somebody who is productive and performs for the business, deserves a fair wage, which is to be determined by the business owner (or manager).
A minimum wage, as determined by governments (at any level) is counter-productive and punishes the business. Punishing a business is not beneficial, either for the business or its employees.
Alongside those points is another point which democrats fail to recognize or choose to ignore. When a person’s wages is raised to a minimum, as defined by government, then, all the other employees who are earning a higher wage will be expecting that their wages be also increased. A minimum wage that is a bottom line for any job at any company, becomes a direct influence and a demand on all other wages within the company to be increased.
That is too complicated. I really do not have a problem with a $15 an hour national minimum wage. I truly think that most companies will survive just fine. What we really need is to implement E-Verify for all existing and future workers. That will help American workers more than anything else Congress might do.
“What are you doing at FR?”
I know the value of compromise.
Trump stood firm and was rolled over November 3rd.
If Joe doesn’t get a better choice, it will be a flat $15 nationwide with local add-ons.
Employers can ask for what they need, and justify that need, or they will be told their options. Put fingers to keys or be roadkill.
“ there will always be a minimum wage of zero. Mandating a higher one just means the least valuable workers either work under the table and don’t pay taxes, or remain unemployed and sponge off the rest of us.”
+1
“The government does not have the right to set a maximum or minimum hourly rate of pay.”
The federal government has the rights the Supreme Court allows it to have.
There are tens of millions of employers, not one of whom has been able to persuade the Supreme Court to your point of view.
Fixed it for you. :)
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